Mike Arms talks about the “business of saving lives”

Mike Arms, President of the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego, Calif. speaks to some San Antonians after his keynote speech at the San Antonio Area Foundation's Community Conversation: Roadmap to No Kill.

His philosophy is that we in the animal field are in the business of saving lives. “We are in the business of selling new and used animals and so we better be good at what we do if we want to save their lives,” he says.

This is not a new message for Arms who has been advocating this philosophy for decades and shown its success at organizations like the North Shore Animal League in Port Washington, NY, and the Helen Woodward Animal Center in San Diego, Calif., both of whom may adopt more dogs and cats per week than any other agencies in the country – thanks to Arms.

But it is a new message for some San Antonio animal welfare people who have thought that the only way to get to No Kill is to give animals away for free or for practically nothing.

“That’s not the road to No Kill,” Arms says. “There are 14 other agencies in my city and I have the highest adoption fee and the highest adoption rate of any of those shelters. Why? I won’t devalue myself and I won’t devalue my pets. If people fall in love with them, they want the pet no matter what the cost.”

The trick though, is getting more foot traffic in the door. Arms says that only 5% of the country ever visits an animal shelter. “People hear the stories of abused, sick and neglected animals and think that is all the shelter offers,” Arms says. “We know that’s not true, so we have to change the stories we tell so more people will want to come to the shelter to find a pet.”

Among many animal welfare professionals, Arms is considered a guru in the marketing of shelter pets. “Let me tell you a story,” he says. “We had a nine-year-old dog and her six puppies came to the shelter. We knew we would have a tough time adopting a nine-year-old dog, so instead of promoting that fact, we sent out a headline to the media that said ‘63-year-old gives birth to sextuplets.’ The media went crazy with the story and we had 20 applications to adopt her that same afternoon.”

The crowd roared with laughter. Every one in that room had known the heartache of trying to find a home for an older dog or cat and was glad to hear of some creative ways to find homes for aging pets.

“What about ‘Take a Dog to Work Day?’ ” says Arms. “That means nothing to me. What about ‘Take an Orphan Dog to Work Day.’ That dog will spend the day visiting people in a work environment and someone – someone will fall in love with that dog and want to adopt that dog by the end of the day. That’s how you get dogs adopted.”

Arms also told shelters to put older dogs at the front of the shelter and the puppies in the back. Using a car dealership analogy – perhaps a tribute to San Antonio business man Pedro “Speedy” Gonzalez, Vice President of Operations at Red McCombs who was sitting on the front row of his presentation and who shows his continuous support for No Kill by hosting spay/neuter clinics at the dealerships – Arms says, “Those puppies are your new model cars. No one is going to buy an older model car — an older pet — if they get to see the new model cars [puppies] first.”

After sharing marketing strategies to increase pet adoptions, Arms set his sights on the people in the room. In all the years I have known Mike, I have never seen him deliver a workshop or speech in which he hasn’t taken the time to honor the people who do animal work every day.

You see, Arms admits animal work is hard and that he wasn’t always a die-hard for the cause. He started as an intern for the ASPCA many decades ago and said that a week before his internship ended, he had decided to never work in the animal field again. “I couldn’t handle the suffering, I couldn’t handle the stupid things people were doing to animals,” he says.

But then, something changed his life. While out on a call to pick up an injured dog that final week, two guys who didn’t want him to pick up the dog because they were “betting on how long it would take for the dog to die,” attacked Arms and left him for dead on the street. The injured dog somehow managed “with his back almost bent in half” to crawl up to Arms and lick his face. “That’s when I said to God, hey, if you left me live, I will do everything in my power to protect animals,” recalls Arms.

A man of his word, Arms protects animals, but also inspires his listeners – the people in the animal welfare field – by acknowledging the emotional pain of the work they do each day, which sometimes involves euthanizing an animal.

“You have the hardest job on the planet,’ says Arms. “Can you think of an industry – any industry – that asks you to destroy that which you love? I tell people, ‘You have no idea how much people in this field suffer. Unless you walk a mile in their shoes don’t pass judgment.’ ”

When Arms finished speaking, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. His compassion for animals and his inspiration on how we can all work together to move forward towards a No Kill San Antonio will help many animal welfare people get up today with renewed energy to make a difference.

Cathy M. Rosenthal

About the Author

Cathy M. Rosenthal has more than 25 years of experience in public relations, communications and humane education in the animal welfare field. She has worked for local humane societies and national humane groups, appearing on hundreds of television and radio news and public affairs programs to address animal issues. She currently is a consultant for local and national animal welfare organizations, writing grants, annual reports and other marketing materials. She is also the author of several children's books about animals.